Mercenaries are extremely over-performing, and pvp is broken..

[FryyT]

i stand corrected in every point of "merc needs rebalance/everyone else should be buffed" argument i had. I forgot the nightmare that was 2014 god bubble sorcs and egotistical operatives. After looking over the classes again there are plenty of stuns, slows and crowd control abilities to take care of merc while their defenses are up.

 

 

After playing a good amount of pvp as mercenary and against mercenaries, i now believe it is just incompetence of teammates, especially since every pvp game i've been in, i'm the only one killing the mercenary and carefully timing my stuns to their defenses.

 

 

Real issue is that pvp is broken. No one even has the competence or attention span to pay attention to mercenaries everywhere and their abilities to heal instantly if you let them, similar to the juggernaut. Just pop defenses after popping your stuns, maybe stealth out of combat after placing a dot on the merc so they can't reload, then come back in to kill them.

 

#buff operatives

[Udoroththefinal]

I just want ap pt and tatics vang to viable again so that you don't have to basically default to merc/mando if you want to dps on trooper and BH as the former are just too gimped to be competitively viable atm

[Greezt]

People also seem to forget that 90% of pvp is regs. Pugs will not be smart enough to "not attack the merc" when his dcds are up. It's the same reason why juggs are so good in regs, but not OP in ranked.

 

Hell, I can hardly get people to listen when I tell people "1 inc <node>, I got it" or, "DO NOT ATTACK THE STEALTHER, JUST CC HIM" when someone's delaying the node...

 

My personal favorite is lifting an annoying op/sin just to have a jugg/mara leap at them.

 

Getting people to focus fire a merc when his shield is down while avoiding him with his shield up is basically impossible for pugs.

[verfallen]

Fully agree. What is also funny is, the "OP" merc abilites, require the enemy to attack the merc for them to heal. Only 1 heals without being attacked, the reflect shield only heals when being attacked, same with the regular shield with the heal passive.

 

So in short, the ones complaining are too daft to notice that if they dont hit a merc when their DcDs are up, they die much easier (lift/incapacitate/stun while active if wanted).

 

Adding to this, when people complained that Sorcs/Ops were OP, they were told to "git gud". Now those same people complaing that mercs are OP, when their self heals are easily prevented by not attacking them? Unlike sorcs who had guaranteed invulnerability/heals with their annoying *** crutch barrier.

 

While the barrier guaranteed some heal, to quickly hammer on a sorc after it drops prevented a bunch of the heals from enduring bastion. Still, cooldown wise, heal wise and duration wise, its not so different than the adrenaline heals are now, and they lacked the other 2 dcds that have people in conniption about merc right now. Also, it required you to stay "cced" for the full duration, in which your opponent could also heal up reposition etc etc.

 

So yes bubble was powerful but it was sorc's only real dcds that didnt involve kiting like hell. Nerfing it made sorc easy target again in most case. Because truth is, even at their worse sorcs were not as OP as merc are now.

 

The reflect itself is fine. Its a good anti-focus, and it has weaknesses (just switch to an aoe ability, and it goes through without reflecting or healing). Its fine as it is.

 

The main issue is with the regular shield cooldown and heal on break, and adrenaline probe. Especially on a healing merc that knows its class, and how to use the kiting tools merc already had.

 

Mercs are currently facetanking anything right now, and if their electronet is up, they have a guaranteed win in most 1vs1, as you wont be able to kite or stick to them for 9 long second. It doesnt need to be a batnerf, but they need to be slightly toned down, mostly through a revision of their survival utilities. While its possible to circumvent them by "timing your stuns" and stop dpsing or whatever good awareness you may have, it does mean you have to withold the stuns and use them defensively. And against a very high burst class like an arsenal merc, if you have to use everything on just neutering their defensive, especially as a melee, their burst and kiting gives them pretty much a guaranteed victory.

 

Currently only sniper and opererative really have the toolbox to go against a good merc and perhaps win. but they most do a no-fault and have everything availaible. Merc's cooldown are really easy to use and extremely powerful.

 

One thing I'm seeing tough, is merc without their cooldown have never been so easy to nuke. Its like they forgot they could kite, and already got used to facetanking 1vs4.

Edited January 1, 2017 by verfallen

[pistoNek]

As said you can play around defenses of mercs by just switching to other targets or using terrain while its up. In my opinion what should be done is leaving healing for healers. And only heals coming are ones from cd's like Overcharged Saber etc.

 

The problem in general is that in dps spec mainly mercs / sorcs can selfheal. And even if you invest offensive cd's they just hide or cc, selfheal and you are done for. Not mentioning oper here because its melee and mostly opers cant buy time to heal up while engaged in fight.

 

Main problem with mercs are not defenses even though they are strong. Problem is their immortality and the way to heal out of nowhere and once you handled the dcd's there is full HP bar to take care of again. My suggestion is to that if you play merc / sorc dps is to reduce healing by half of its current value and apply the ability in healing tree to make values normal.

 

Another thing

 

We all speak defenses but what about damages they can do. HSM outdamage every other ability in game right now.

 

Comparing it to ambush, you have to cast it before it deals damage, so you have time to hide and deny the cast. HSM once they go for you they take out like 1/3 of full HP bar. My idea of change is to give priming shot 2 stacks of instant tracers and make HSM a cast.

 

 

PS what do you think of slow in BB ? As for me its enough that mercs can move while casting it. Slow is just another thing to take care of.

Edited January 1, 2017 by pistoNek

[DariusCalera]

As said you can play around defenses of mercs by just switching to other targets or using terrain while its up. In my opinion what should be done is leaving healing for healers. And only heals coming are ones from cd's like Overcharged Saber etc.

 

The problem in general is that in dps spec mainly mercs / sorcs can selfheal. And even if you invest offensive cd's they just hide or cc, selfheal and you are done for. Not mentioning oper here because its melee and mostly opers cant buy time to heal up while engaged in fight.

 

Main problem with mercs are not defenses even though they are strong. Problem is their immortality and the way to heal out of nowhere and once you handled the dcd's there is full HP bar to take care of again. My suggestion is to that if you play merc / sorc dps is to reduce healing by half of its current value and apply the ability in healing tree to make values normal.

 

Another thing

 

We all speak defenses but what about damages they can do. HSM outdamage every other ability in game right now.

 

Comparing it to ambush, you have to cast it before it deals damage, so you have time to hide and deny the cast. HSM once they go for you they take out like 1/3 of full HP bar. My idea of change is to give priming shot 2 stacks of instant tracers and make HSM a cast.

 

 

PS what do you think of slow in BB ? As for me its enough that mercs can move while casting it. Slow is just another thing to take care of.

 

Merc/mando self heals are pretty terrible. If you LOS to heal up using them more than likely you are going to over heat rather quickly. From near death, <10% to 90%>, it takes about 15 seconds if you are using the casted self heals if they are simply standing still with no other damage coming in. (i.e dots or getting hit with aoe) If a person is letting a merc/mando LOS and hide for that long then it's on that person and not the strength of the heals.

 

As for HSM, you can always hide now and deny the cast of Tracer Missile/Grav Round. Priming Shot and Vortex Bolt do no always proc the instant cast since the can be absorbed, deflected, or whatever. They have to actually cause damage in order for the proc to activate.

 

But, in the end, you are asking to be able to LOS one ability because you can't LOS the ability leading up to it. If a player can't LOS one, what makes you think they could LOS the other?